TAKEAWAYS

• Bebe Cool says veteran artists built the music industry through years of hard work and sacrifice.
• He questioned why many upcoming musicians struggle to attract 4,000 to 5,000 fans to their shows.
• The singer compared today’s digital promotion tools to the CD distribution methods his generation relied on.

Veteran Ugandan musician Bebe Cool has expressed concern about the current state of the music industry, arguing that established artists worked tirelessly to build the sector and should not watch it deteriorate due to what he described as incompetence among some upcoming musicians.

Speaking in a recent interview, Bebe Cool questioned the ability of many new-generation artists to attract audiences to their events, noting that some struggle to bring in even 4,000 to 5,000 fans for their shows.

“We’ve built this industry brick by brick, and now you’re going to see what it means to be serious,” he said, emphasizing that he will not sit back and watch the industry they spent years developing decline.

The singer reflected on the challenges artists faced during the early years of Uganda’s music industry, explaining that success did not come easily for his generation. According to him, musicians had to rely on physical distribution methods, particularly CDs, to get their music to listeners.

“We would walk around with CDs to taxi parks, radio stations, and request that they copy off our music and return it so we can push to other places,” he explained.

Bebe Cool noted that artists often traveled across the country promoting their music manually, a process that required significant time, effort, and resources.

He contrasted those experiences with the opportunities available to today’s musicians, pointing out that social media platforms and smartphones have made music promotion much easier than it was in the past.

Despite these advantages, he believes many emerging artists are failing to maximize the available tools and are not producing music that meets the standards required to sustain the industry’s growth.